San Diego  Rep. Bob Filner is widely known as one of the most liberal members of Congress and he’s embracing that label as he runs for San Diego mayor.

The history professor turned politician believes voters are ready to elect a self-described progressive Democrat to lead America’s Finest City despite their long history of electing Republicans as mayor.

Filner says his political career — from San Diego school board to City Council to Congress — shows he’s much more than a reliable vote for left-leaning groups. He also says he has a track record of solving complicated problems and standing up for military veterans and the downtrodden.

Critics, including his rivals in the mayor’s race, applaud his tenacity on certain issues but say his activist mentality and brusque personality aren’t a good fit for the region’s most high-profile political position. They also say his deep ties with labor unions make him the least likely of the candidates to advance pension reform in a way that puts taxpayers’ interests first.

Filner, 69, sums up his candidacy by saying he’s the oldest and the youngest candidate even though two of his mayoral rivals are under the age of 40.

“I’m the youngest because I’m going to break the power of special interests that control (city) issues,” he said. “There’s reasons why certain neighborhoods don’t have their infrastructure repaired. … It’s because certain decisions are controlled by a certain group of people and they’re not in the interests of everybody and I’m going to change that. So I’m the oldest and the youngest because we will enter the 21st century with me as mayor.”

Filner’s political career began in 1979 when he successfully ran for the city school board after fending off an attempt to close down the school his children attended. He later became board president and ousted the superintendent. He then led a national search for a replacement and selected Tom Payzant, who served 11 years before leaving to become U.S. assistant secretary of education under President Bill Clinton. Payzant is widely considered the best superintendent of city schools in recent memory, and Filner calls his hiring “the single most important thing I’ve ever done for San Diego.”

Filner later served on the City Council for five years beginning in 1987, a period that is notable because it isn’t tied to any of the boondoggles and bad decisions for which past city leaders receive scathing criticism.

During his tenure, Filner helped complete the development plans for downtown and Balboa Park. He also said he was instrumental in making the site of a 1984 massacre at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro into a satellite campus for Southwestern Community College. At the time, there was ardent debate about the best use and how to appropriately honor the 21 killed by a crazed gunman.

Filner drew criticism last fall for saying he spearheaded and wrote the development plan for the Gaslamp Quarter as a councilman. The Voice of San Diego, an online news site, labeled that statement “misleading” because others had pushed the plan forward years before Filner joined the council.

Filner's legislation

1994: The Ocean Pollution Reduction Act gave the city of San Diego a waiver on a federal mandate to upgrade, at a cost of $3 billion, its Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant.

2004: Renamed the U.S. Post Office building in Valencia Park after Earl B. Gilliam, San Diego’s first black federal judge.

2010: Amended federal law to expand veteran eligibility for reimbursement of emergency health care performed by a non-Department of Veterans Affairs facility.

2010: Amended the Internal Revenue Code to include children of the Vietnam War and certain Korean War veterans receiving care and services through Veterans Affairs for spina bifida-related medical conditions and children of women Vietnam veterans born with certain birth defects as meeting the definition of minimum essential heath care coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

2010: The Veterans’ Benefits Act increased, expanded or clarified dozens of benefits for military veterans that dealt with housing, homelessness, employment, education, insurance, pay and pensions, among other things.

Source: govtrack.us

Filner called that a misunderstanding of how the process works at City Hall.

“The official staff don’t work in a vacuum,” he said. “They can only work if there’s political support for what they’re doing. If they’re not going to have anybody who’s going approve what they’re doing … it doesn’t happen. You need the political support and encouragement and I was visible throughout the Gaslamp (implementation).”

For the past two decades, Filner has represented southern San Diego County, and later Imperial County as well, in Congress. His voting record during that time scores high marks from groups that lobby on behalf of abortion rights, the environment, gay rights and employee unions as well as the American Civil Liberties Union. He gets low marks from the gun lobby and anti-abortion groups. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gives him a lifetime rating of 27 out of 100.

As he runs for mayor, Filner has repeatedly said he isn’t beholden to special-interest groups and will stand up to the downtown establishment, which he specifically said includes developers such as U-T San Diego Publisher Douglas Manchester.

Special interests, however, come in many different forms and Filner can’t accurately claim he hasn’t benefitted politically from such support.

According to opensecrets.org, which tracks how money influences Congress, 15 of Filner’s top 20 campaign contributors over the past two decades have been labor unions. During that period, he collected more than $9.1 million in total contributions. About 46 percent of that total came from political-action committees, the main financial vehicle used by special-interest groups to influence elections, including about $2 million from labor.

Filner has joined labor as an outspoken opponent of Proposition B, an initiative on the June ballot that would replace pensions with 401(k)-style plans for most new city hires. The other three major candidates for mayor — City Councilman Carl DeMaio, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher — support the ballot measure.

“Most of my money is from labor. I consider them working people,” Filner said. “DeMaio defines that as special interest. I define it as working people. I’m unabashedly for the working person. … You will find very little contributions from the 1 percent.”

During the campaign, Filner’s record in Congress has been criticized by his opponents who point out that he’s only had six pieces of legislation signed into law over two decades.

“He has six bills in 20 years and one is to name a post office,” Dumanis said. “I’d say as mayor you’re going to have to do six things before breakfast.”

Filner said he played a role in countless pieces of legislation through the years, but the process in Washington is one where oftentimes official credit goes to representatives facing tough re-election bids. For example, as chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, he said he wrote parts of a new G.I. bill that vastly increased the amount of money available for this generation of military veterans to go to college but authorship credit went to a senator.

His active role on veterans issues, which comprise four of his six bills, is often what Filner receives praise for, even from Republicans.

John Dadian, a Republican political consultant and former Marine veteran, said he doesn’t often see eye-to-eye with Filner politically but applauds his advocacy of veterans, including the G.I. bill and recognition for Filipinos who served the U.S. in World War II.

“I respect what he did as chairman of Veterans Affairs and he came through for San Diego,” he said.

Fletcher, also a former Marine, credits Filner for being a supporter of veterans but doesn’t think that will translate to City Hall.

“He’s one of the most partisan members of Congress,” he said. “I think Bob’s brought an approach that is more of an activist’s approach. … I don’t know that that approach is best suited to be mayor.”

Filner has also courted controversy during his career.

In August 2007, he was involved in an altercation with a baggage worker at Dulles International Airport. She accused him of assault and battery after he tried to go into an employees-only area to inquire about his missing bags. He said he never touched her but pleaded no contest to trespassing, paid a $100 fine and issued her a written apology.

Filner also has been criticized for using campaign donations to pay his now ex-wife more than $500,000 over 10 years for raising campaign money on his behalf. He say he doesn’t regret hiring her because she did a great job.

One of Filner’s campaign themes is that his anti-establishment image gives him the outsider’s perspective to go with his insider’s knowledge of how governments operate. He points to the party split in San Diego (40 percent Democrat, 28 percent Republican) and sees a path to victory.

If he does win, Filner would become only the second Democratic mayor in San Diego in more than 40 years.